Battle on the Golden Gate Bridge
The Battle on the Golden Gate Bridge is the climatic fight in Rise of the Planet of the Apes. After the apes break out of the San Bruno Primate Shelter, Gen-Sys Laboratories, and San Francisco Zoo, Caesar leads his fellow primate brethren on a full scale assault on the Golden Gate Bridge which sees hundreds of humans killed or injured, and hundreds of apes killed or injured. The battle marks the first battle of the Human-Ape War that Caesar leads as a leader, and shows how the apes' strategy out matches the humans' superior weapons. Prelude The Birth of a new era The events that led to this fight and the Ape Rebellion as a whole began thirteen and a half years before. When Gen-Sys Laboratories scientist, Will Rodman started developing a retrovirus to cure Alzheimer's Disease under the supervision of his employer, Steven Jacobs. Five and a half years later, Will started giving the retrovirus, ALZ-112, to chimpanzee test subjects. Including a pregnant female nicknamed Bright Eyes. Convinced that Bright Eyes' improved cognitive abilities made the ALZ-112 safe for human trials, Will and Steven called a Board meeting to decide the next step. However, when Bright Eyes' chimpanzee handlers tried to bring her to the Board and unknowingly separate her from her newly born son, her maternal instincts urged her to attack. Eventually she was shot to death in front of the Board members and the project was shut down. After the other apes were euthanized, Will and handler Robert Franklin discovered the infant chimpanzee with the latter convincing the former to smuggle him out. Caesar's Childhood Discovering the effects of 112 on the young ape's brain cells, Will and his father named the increasingly intelligent ape Caesar and raised him in their family which was later joined by veterinarian Caroline Aranha three years later. At eight years of age, Caesar started questioning in sign his role in life compared to humans and other animals. Prompting Will to tell him the truth which made Caesar conflicted. Later, in a demented state, Charles got into an argument with their volatile neighbor which caused Caesar to attack the latter in his adoptive human grandfather's defense. Biting off his finger in front of many people. Caesar's Imprisonment The court then sent Caesar to the San Bruno Primate Shelter where he was harassed by the alpha chimpanzee Rocket and the guard Dodge Landon as well as growing embittered that his parental figures couldn't take him home. As time passed, Caesar began to adjust to the shelter making a companion out the friendly orangutan Maurice (who also knew sign language) and started to teach himself way of survival. Later on, he stole a knife from one of Dodge Landon's friends and used it to break out of his cell before doing the same to the cell of the lonely but kind gorilla Buck who became another friend of his. Soon after, the two new friends outsmarted and intimidated Rocket to make Caesar the new alpha. Deciding to forge a strong sense of loyalty into his fellow apes, Caesar first had Rocket share cookies between the other apes as an act of morale boosting. Then, after a discussion on the intelligence and strength of apes with his orangutan friend Maurice. Caesar secretly escaped the Shelter to steal the new and improved ALZ-113 from his former home allowing himself and his fellow inmates to inhale it's gaseous effects. Ape Breakout The next day, Caesar inspected the apes as they entered the play den. Seeing how green their eyes had become and how more organized they became in terms of their behavior, he decided it was time for them to escape to freedom. On that same day, Caesar stayed behind in the play area while the others moved into their cages for the night. When Dodge confronted him, Caesar outmaneuvred him and showed how he has evolved to the point where he can actually speak in defiance to Dodge before knocking the human out. Freeing his fellow apes, locking up the more kinder guard Rodney, and accidentally electrocuting Dodge, Caesar led his newly formed army to escape the Shelter. By dawn, they arrived at the outskirts of San Francisco. Dividing his troops to different destinations; Caesar, Maurice, Rocket and their troops led an attack to free the apes at Gen-Sys while Buck and his troops did the same at the San Francisco Zoo. After a series of near abductions and fights between the apes and human law enforcement, Caesar leads his greatly increased army of apes to the Golden Gate Bridge where they could escape to the safety of the redwoods forest in Muir Woods Park. Battle Apes Attack the bridge After terrorizing their way through the San Francisco streets, the apes used a trolley and managed to make it to the Golden Gate Bridge, upon reaching their destination they scared off the humans on the bridge. This act forced the police to have all of the civilians evacuated in order for them to battle the apes with no problems. The police had their officers ride horses in attempt to push the apes to the center of the bridge, Will Rodman with the help of his girlfriend Caroline was able to elude the police in order to reach their adoptive son Caesar. The police force had formed a blockade to hold off the apes and drive them to the end where they would be fleeing into a massacre by the rest of the police force who were awaiting the ape's arrival. Caesar's Plan However, this strategy had been anticipated by Caesar who ordered his ape army to halt and this is where he showed his prowess as a powerful leader as he used military tactics to combat the humans. Having his new recruit, Koba lead the chimpanzees and attack the humans from above by climbing the bridge high wires while using the fog in the air to their advantage. Instructing Maurice to lead the orangutans and some chimpanzees to climb beneath the bridge in order to attack the humans from below the bridge. While the rest of the apes were to follow their leader to the bridge center to combat the human force's directly. As this occurred, Caesar witnessed his brethren being attacked by police on horseback and with the help of his friend Buck they took down a few police officers. Buck was close to killing one, but was stopped by Caesar. Flying over the bridge in a police helicopter, Steven Jacobs had saw the apes climbing the bridge high wires and urged the officers to shoot down the apes before they were lost in the fog and in the process a chimpanzee named Wolfie was shot much to Maurice's anger, who began climbing faster to the center. Apes versus Man Caesar then instructed Buck and the gorillas to use their strength to push a large bus in the range of police bullets, and when the police were out of bullets they saw a horse emerging from the fog with the rider turning out to be Caesar who gave the order to attack. At that moment, the apes descended into battle and overwhelmed the police officers with their strength and intelligence and the humans were no match for the apes especially when the rest of the apes joined in the battle. Despite this a majority of the officers survived as Caesar did not truly hate humans and only wished to lead his people to true freedom. The battle ended with Buck throwing an officer off the bridge which forced the remaining officers to retreat giving the apes their victory and as they were celebrating their leader's adoptive human father caught up with them and shouted for Caesar. Though shocked by his presence Caesar faced another problem the police helicopter had arrived and began shooting many of the apes. Jacobs identifying Caesar as the leader of the apes had the police shoot at him, Caesar quickly threw a chain from a police SWAT car at the shooter and Jacobs which knocked the two down however, the pilot took out his gun and shot at Caesar putting him in danger. Luckily, Buck, witnessing this, quickly pushed Caesar out of the way and leaped at the helicopter all the while taking countless bullets to the chest before making his way to the chopper and attacking everyone on board causing it to crash on the bridge. Caesar quickly ran to the helicopter where he pulled a seriously wounded Buck out of the debris and having only a few moments the gorilla thanked Caesar for his friendship and passed on in the chimpanzee's arms. Caesar closed his friend's eyes and mourned his death, as he did so a voice called out for help, it was Steven Jacobs who survived the crash and was now dangling over the helicopter edge. The wounded man begged Caesar to save him, as the chimpanzee began to reach out to help him, he reconsidered still hurt after his friend's demise and seeing Jacobs as a corrupt man allowed Koba to do as he pleased with him. Koba then approached the helicopter much to Jacobs' horror as he recognized the bonobo from the Gen Sys lab, and told the bonobo to go away, but as he did so the bonobo was using his foot to push the helicopter off the bridge. With his last breath Jacobs angrily called Koba a "Stupid monkey!", and was left to scream uncontrollably as he plummeted to his death in the water below. Aftermath The apes then retreat from the bridge, quickly making their way to the Redwoods, Will Rodman goes after them by stealing a police car. Will arrived in the forest calling out for Caesar only for this to draw the attention of Koba who stops him in his track and attempts to kill him. Fortunately, Caesar arrives just in time to stop the bonobo from hurting his adoptive human father. Koba tries to go for Will again but Caesar backs him down and Koba angrily backs away into the forest as Caesar helps Will off the ground. Will attempts to reason with Caesar, telling him that he knows what humans are capable of and he wants to protect him from what's to come. Caesar looking upon his new followers and seeing that he's in the place that was always natural to him decides this is how he wants to live his life in the forest with real freedom. He declines his adoptive father's offer to leave with him by hugging him and speaking his first full sentence; "Caesar is Home", into his ear. Will, amazed Caesar talked, gave Caesar his blessing to live in the forest with his friends, and watches as the other apes rise on their back legs and acknowledge Caesar as their leader before taking to the trees, with Will watching below being proud of Caesar. The apes then look from the trees and stare upon the destruction they put on San Francisco. Notes *It would later be revealed that Cornelia was involved in the fight and wasn't injured. After the fight, she acted as a medic to those that were injured. *The apes would later go on to create an Ape Village in the Muir Woods with a population of over 2000 evolved apes ten years after the ape rebellion. Trivia *The motion capture performer, Devyn Dalton was hired for the role of Cornelia due to the physical requirements, there were more then likely scenes shot but they, like the romantic bond between Cornelia and Caesar, didn't make it into the final film. *The original ending of ''Rise ''showed Will accidentally being shot by John Landon when the mourning man was actually meant to shoot Caesar after the chimp accidentally killed Dodge earlier in the film. Will stepped in to protect Caesar only to be shot in the process, protecting his adoptive son. The apes were then meant to be seen to come swarming to their Alpha's rescue and killing Landon while they are shot at by Police. Will then dies in Caesar's arms. When the ending was shown to audiences, they dubbed it too depressing and dark so Rupert Wyatt, Andy Serkis and James Franco went back and reshot the ending that ended up appearing in the final film. Image Gallery Bridge.jpg|The Battle Wages - the Golden Gate Bridge. 20SF256-Apes-on bridge v04-550x396.jpg|Attacking the People. 19SF259-Aerial Bridge Apes V04-lower-550x337.jpg|Koba leads the apes up the side of the Bridge. Buck2.jpg|Buck goes headlong. BuckPlane.jpg|Buck throws himself at Jacobs' helicopter. Buck dies.jpg|Buck dies after saving Caesar. Koba With Shoutgun.jpg|Behind the Scenes: Chris Gordon as Koba in the forest. CaesarGoodbye.jpg|Caesar and Will's last known encounter. EvolvedApesBreed.jpg|Prior to the Battle on the Bridge - Caesar with Maurice, Rocket and Buck. Caesar.jpg|Caesar issues an order to wait. Caesar Is Home.jpg|Behind the Scenes: Andy Serkis and James Franco filming Caesar's goodbye to Will. Category:CE Category:Events Category:Ape Rebellion (CE) Category:Human-Ape War Category:Wars Category:Battles